Steven Pinker’s favorite books
http://www.vulture.com/2018/03/steven-pinkers-10-favorite-books.html
include title by Gamow, Dawkins, Deutsch, and his wife
Sean Carroll’s correctives to Jordan Peterson’s fandom
Cleaning your room is good; using pseudo-intellectual babble about archetypes to identify culture with masculinity is…
Posted by Sean M. Carroll on Monday, March 19, 2018
(with links to three essays about Peterson)
Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/human-existence-will-look-more-miraculous-the-longer-we-survive/554513/
Why Earth’s History Appears So Miraculous: The strange, cosmic reason our evolutionary path will look ever luckier the longer we survive
Paul Giamatti and Stephen Colbert talk obscure science fiction
WaPo
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2017/11/22/at-yale-we-conducted-an-experiment-to-turn-conservatives-into-liberals-the-results-say-a-lot-about-our-political-divisions/
At Yale, we conducted an experiment to turn conservatives into liberals. The results say a lot about our political divisions.
For example, over a decade now of research in political psychology consistently shows that how physically threatened or fearful a person feels is a key factor — although clearly not the only one — in whether he or she holds conservative or liberal attitudes.
David Brin on the Basic Human Dilemma
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-basic-human-dilemma-and-some-brin.html
Harper’s: Crowley reviews Le Guin
Video showing the full rotation of the moon, on Brian Cox’s page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/professorbriancox/permalink/1793476167343953/
None of this really happened – some perspective on historical and religious myths
Why even intelligence doesn’t necessarily protect you from delusional beliefs
https://imperfectcognitions.blogspot.com/2018/02/rationalization-why-your-intelligence_13.html
WSJ: Steven Pinker on the Enlightenment (a gloss on his new book)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-enlightenment-is-working-1518191343
LA Times: the rationales of flat earthers
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-colorado-flat-earth-20180115-story.html
Why are conservatives more susceptible to believing lies?
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/11/why_conservatives_are_more_susceptible_to_believing_in_lies.html
The answer is 63
https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/11/12/562802511/the-answer-to-life-the-universe-and-everything-it-s-63
Baptist News: the death of Christianity in the US
Aeon: The good guy/bad guy myth: Pop culture today is obsessed with the battle between good and evil. Traditional folktales never were. What changed?
https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-pop-culture-obsessed-with-battles-between-good-and-evil
David McRaney on fake news (via Geoffrey A. Landis Fb post)
Interesting.
Posted by Geoffrey A. Landis on Friday, January 26, 2018
Science fiction for economists
http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.pe/2013/05/science-fiction-for-economists.html
novels by Vinge, Doctorow, Le Guin, Stross, Niven/Pournelle, Bacigalupi, Heinlein, Sterling, Egan, Stephenson, Martin, Atwood, Effinger, Brunner
Richard Feynman quote
I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned. pic.twitter.com/6bIQlT32zf
— Richard Feynman (@ProfFeynman) January 1, 2018
The immensity of the universe
http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-immensity-of-the-universe-and-our-place-in-it
How the religious right wins converts, to atheism
Here are 8 ways the religious right wins converts – to atheism
